Not quite 2 years ago (February 12, 2016) I wrote the following regarding the publication of a new edition of my novel, Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World, now titled Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Player, on the publication streaming site known as #FreedReads:

‘Freed Reads hopes to help combat those problems [associated with illiteracy] by doing for reading what #YouTube and #Netflix have done for viewing. But is such a thing possible? Can books be streamed in a manner that proves satisfactory to #stakeholders at every level? Freed Reads’ founders decided that the idea is worth investing sufficient time, labor, and pioneering technology to find out…” (from Christmas Gets a Valentine’s Day Weekend Reboot)​I also felt the innovation was worth taking time to investigate its possibilities. For me, that meant taking a leap of faith and placing Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player in the Australia-based publisher’s hands.

Bad News, Good News, and More Good News

With the stiff competition that seasoned organizations like Amazon and various retail chain giants always present to newcomers, the venture at first gained some respectable ground. Recently, however, owners decided the operation in its current form would not be able to survive and the website hosting it is now offline.

The good news is that although Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player is no longer available as a “Freed Read,” the original Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World underground classic edition can still be purchased in both copy and digital formats at the following links:

The other upside to recent developments is that the Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Player edition is now available for a traditional publisher to consider its publication and distribution.

About Aberjhani

​On any given day of the week, the creator of Postered Chromatic Poetics and co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, Aberjhani, may be found wearing any number of hats: historian, visual artist, poet, advocate for compassion, novelist, journalist, photographer, and editor. Having recently completed a book of creative nonfiction on his hometown of Savannah, Georgia (USA) he is currently working on a play about the implications of generational legacies as symbolized by efforts to rename the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge.

At its core, the novel Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World has always been about lovers attempting to reconcile the demands of their mysterious almost-mythical destinies with the ache-filled longings of human hearts. That enigmatic core, however, is only one of the drivers behind the book’s Valentine’s Day reboot with this new title: Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player.

​Another is the opportunity it presents to participate in a bold new global publishing platform, Freed Reads, based in Australia. The 2016 launch of the Freed Reads initiative represents one of the many options now available to readers, authors, and publishers. The business model is a very socially responsible one with an aim to make literature more accessible to readers and thereby help increase literacy rates around the world.

The Dangerous Costs of Illiteracy​

​For those accustomed to enjoying the latest New York Times bestseller or who have no problems following the plot of HBO’s The Game of Thrones because they have read George R.R. Martin’s masterful fantasy books, the idea of illiteracy might seem like something beyond their concern. However, the detrimental effects of illiteracy involve more than single disadvantaged individuals. The World Literacy Foundation points out the following in the executive summary of its report on The Economic & Social Cost of Illiteracy: A Snapshot of Illiteracy in a Global Context:

“Globally, more than 796 million people in the world cannot read and write. About 67 million children do not have access to primary school education and another 72 million miss out on secondary school education.”

​How do those demographic numbers translate into economic measures? That’s a good question with some not-so-good answers:

​​“The cost of illiteracy to the global economy is estimated at USD $1.2 trillion.

The effects of illiteracy are very similar in developing and developed countries. This includes illiterates trapped in a cycle of poverty with limited opportunities for employment or income generation and higher chances of poor health, turning to crime and dependence on social welfare or charity (if available).” (Download the pdf for the report)

​Creative Digital Thinkers

​Freed Reads hopes to help combat those problems by doing for reading what YouTube and Netflix have done for viewing. But is such a thing possible? Can books be streamed in a manner that proves satisfactory to stakeholders at every level? Freed Reads founders Andy and Megan Futcher decided that the idea is worth investing sufficient time, labor, and pioneering technology to find out:

“…We promote the benefits of reading to audiences who would never usually buy or read books. Thereby doing our bit for global literacy and advocating for the rights of authors and other creative artists… By 'rendering' book pages and serving them out to readers on-demand via their web-browsers we provide readers with lossless textual quality, high-definition character integrity and natively supported data-compression.” (from company press release: Making Books Free & Supporting Authors with Ad-Royalties)

​Traditional publishers may respond to the launch of Freed Reads with skepticism, precisely as traditional organizations tend to do in the face of potentially revolutionary enterprises. Any number of authors will look past possible financial benefits and consider investing one or more titles in the new catalog to make their own contribution to combating illiteracy.

For Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player, the initiative allows readers to experience a story that some industry gatekeepers found too “avant garde,” “controversial,” or “experimental” when first presented for publication under its former title. Just as importantly, it makes it possible to participate in an active dialogue concerning what works best not only for those who market books, but those who actually write and read them. That's the kind of #ValentinesDay present book lovers on both sides of the page, printed or digital, can truly appreciate.